Christmas Miracles
by RR-Roza-Robertson
Summary: Relationships end and love hurts but things will always get better, and even if Mai doesn't have the strength Lin-san will be there to help her see that.


**This is another Mai x Lin pairing, but this story was following a prompt given to me :D**

**I hope that you enjoy it! **

**Also, since I love to write but have no idea what about anymore, if anyone has any one-shot prompts or ideas they don't want to write about you can message me and I'll be taking prompts **

**It can be any pairing in Ghost Hunt, but I'd rather it to be this pairing. Anyhow...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt! **

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'_It wasn't what it looked like, it can't be; he wouldn't do that to me.' _The young girl whispered to herself as she ran from her apartment. She tried desperately to blink tears back, her shattered heart holding onto the false hope that maybe, just maybe she was having a nightmare.

'_Naru wouldn't hurt me like that.' _She thought hopelessly again. Mai wasn't sure where she was running; all she knew was that she was. I suppose it was one of her bad habits; running away when hurt, at the age of 20 you'd think that would've changed by now.

When Naru and Lin-san got back from England two years had already passed, making Mai 19 years old. Since then Mai believed that she was in a happy, stable relationship with Naru. After all, why else would he ask her to move in?

Mai entered into the work office, doubling over with her hands on her knees, trying to breathe through her constricting chest.

"Taniyama-san? Are you alright?" the Chinese man asked as he exited his office, hearing the barely concealed sobs from the younger woman. Placing his hand on her shoulder he soon stood shocked as Mai threw herself into his chest, wrapping her arms around him. Confused, he didn't know how to react.

"Taniyama-san, what are you doing?" the shock washed away the moment he felt her tears soak through his shirt.

"Naru, h-he was with Masako, in our apartment!" she cried and Lin-san frowned, slowly rubbing up and down her back and trying to calm the young girl.

"Sit down, Taniyama-san, I'll make you some tea." she sniffled, nodding her head and allowing him to take her to the couch. He made quick work on a tea before handing it to the young girl, sitting beside her and watching as she stared blankly at the steaming liquid.

"What happened?" Lin-san asked more gently and if it hadn't of been for the fact that she suddenly felt empty she may have been shocked.

"I stayed at Ayako's last night because N-Naru and I had a fight. It was a tiny one but he was in a bad mood and I didn't want to put up with it. When I came back home this m-morning they were," she paused as she wiped the stream of fresh tears away "they were in our bed!" her body began to shake with sobs once again and she placed the tea on the table, covering her face.

Lin-san was shocked. While he knew that the boy could be an arrogant ass sometimes he never believed that he'd do this to her. Truthfully he hated Mai and Naru together. Not because he was jealous—of course not; he didn't get jealous, why would he be jealous?—but because he knew in a way that this would happen. Naru only ever insulted Mai, and sometimes Lin-san thought that Mai held onto those rare sweet moments more than she should.

"Taniyama-san…I'm sorry." there was nothing else that he could say to her.

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"Mai, I'm sorry!" the narcissist yelled as yet another plate was thrown at his head.

After staying at Ayako's for a week it seemed that Naru had wanted to apologise, heading to the Miko's house. He seemed to think that a sorry would fix all of this but as Mai hounded him for answers to questions she didn't want; she found that sorry wasn't going to be enough.

"For what? For breaking my heart," he dodged a remote "for cheating on me for the last three months," this time it was a hard covered book "or for thinking that I'd actually come back to you?" this time he dodged the vase that was aimed for his head.

"Taniyama-san!" Lin-san entered through the open door way, standing shocked for a moment before running over to her as she lifted a tiny marble statue that would severely hurt Naru should he get hit.

"Let me go, Lin-san!" she yelled as he grabbed her wrist, taking the statue from her hand and throwing it to Ayako who stood in the background, too shocked to do anything.

"I can't do that, Taniyama-san." He said calmly as he watched Naru flee the apartment before staring at her. She looked to the ground, body quivering as she struggled to hold the pain inside.

"He deserves everything that he gets!" Mai yelled desperately.

"I know he does, but he'll get what's coming to him in due time." Lin-san whispered before she broke; Mai falling to her knees and crying desperately into her own hands. Ayako quickly ran over, holding the young girl as Lin-san began to make tea for the girl, shaking his head as his own fists clenched in anger.

'_Damn you, Oliver, you never could be a man, could you?' _

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A week later it was Christmas day and Mai realised she had never felt so alone. Even when living by herself she had never felt so empty or betrayed. Not to mention tonight was Ayako's big Christmas party, and while she had been hesitant to invite Naru and Masako, Mai had insisted. It wouldn't be right to not invite them; they were part of the gang as well. If it hadn't of been for Naru, Mai never would've met them all.

Mai tried to tell herself that she'd be fine; she's gone through worse than this and survived, right?

Lin-san entered into the apartment an hour early, seeing the Monk sitting on the couch, eating Christmas cookies as Ayako and Mai frantically cleaned and got everything ready. Lin-san rolled his eyes, smirking slightly as he slapped the Monk on the back of the head, who yelped in response.

"You should be helping." Lin-san snapped jokingly as he headed to the kitchen where Mai was preparing food. He sighed when he saw her; fake smile and blood shot eyes. Unfortunately it had become a natural occurrence.

Lin-san knew that Mai may never be the same again, it was like this when your first love breaks your heart, and in such a horrible way. Hell, he had been changed from his first love and it hadn't even ended badly.

"Merry Christmas, Taniyama-san." Lin-san gave a tiny smile to her, his normal twitch of the lips. He struggled to keep that smile when her own fake smile simply grew. He mused the fact that if hadn't of known what had happened, and couldn't see how red her eyes were, he may have believed it.

"Merry Christmas, Lin-san." she greeted back.

"Can I do anything to help?" he asked, taking his coat off and laying it on the back of the chair as he rolled his sleeves up.

"Oh? You don't have to help, you're a guest!" Mai fumbled, much to his amusement.

"Matsuzaki-san mentioned that Takigawa-san was here to help, and considering it is Takigawa-san, I came over to do what he won't." he was happy to see that Mai giggled a bit at what he said, nodding in agreement.

"You could help me chop up some of the food if you'd like?" Lin-san quickly began, doing as she told him to.

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An hour later people had begun to arrive and soon the awkward atmosphere of Naru and Masako's arrival, together, was gone at the exchange of presents. Although everyone was happily tearing through wrapping paper and loudly exclaiming their thanks, Mai soon found herself speechless.

In her hands was a picture frame, inside it the picture was of the gang, before Naru and Lin-san left for England. Her fingers traced over her own face, wishing for those days back. She looked harder, noticing the fact that while she was laughing at the fact that Bou-san was in the middle of falling to the floor after Ayako had hit him; Naru had been staring at her, that soft, tiny smile on his face that she rarely ever saw.

"I, uh," she coughed to clear her throat, smiling at Naru and Masako in a pitiful attempt "thank you for the present." She hated the fact that they were practically parading their relationship around; arriving together, giving out joint gifts, never straying from each other's sides for too long. Two weeks ago that had been her and Naru.

Lin-san knew that she was about to cry, had been glancing at her most of the night, his anger slowly growing with each sad look and fake smile that she gave.

Finally, when she stood up and quickly left the room, everyone staring after her as you heard her bedroom door slam, it seemed Lin-san could take no more.

"You are an idiot." He hissed towards Naru, shocked eyes now on him.

"I'm a what?" Naru asked in shock.

It was no secret that Lin-san had yelled at Naru time and again, after all he never really did what his guardian said to, but this was a different type of anger. This wasn't annoyance over endangering himself; this was true anger over hurting someone he cared about.

If Naru knew anything it was that the older Chinese man scared him if he was ever protecting someone he cared about. No matter how great Naru was in a fight, if it came down to Lin-san fighting to protect someone he loved, Lin-san would win.

In a way Naru was angry at himself for causing Lin-san to feel this way about him.

"Did I not make myself clear? You are an idiot!" Ayako winced at the true fury in his voice. Lin-san had always been intimidating; right now he was downright terrifying.

"Lin-san, calm down." Ayako tried, placing her hand on his arm, quickly pulling away when she could feel his muscles trembling with the effort to not hurt the young boy.

"That girl in there is better than Hara-san could ever be! She never deserved to be broken by a pathetic excuse of a man like you!" Lin-san stood up in anger, towering over the boy "Out of all of us she deserves to be the happiest and yet you seemed to have no trouble at all at insulting her and degrading her every second of the day!" It was almost like nobody could speak.

Naru kind of agreed.

Everyone was used to Lin-san now; he was almost nice company to be around. This…they had never, in all their years of knowing the Chinese man, seen him go off like this. It's true they were all protective of Mai, being the youngest warranted that, but this wasn't just feeling a little protective of the young girl. This was more.

None of them, even the Chinese man, wanted to know just how much more.

"How dare—" Lin-san cut the narcissist off.

"I have spent years listening to you, hoping that the boy that would play pranks on Gene and stayed up telling ghost stories would come back, but now I realise that he's gone. Now I realise that it wasn't just Gene that died that day, it was you as well. I feel sorry for you, Oliver. I feel sorry because you gave up when no one else, especially that girl in there, gave up on you!" with that Lin-san stood, briskly walking to the bedroom that Mai hid in and letting himself in, closing the door behind him.

"I—I think that I should go." for the first time in over five years Naru had listened when someone spoke to him. He seriously wished he hadn't.

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"Taniyama-san?" Lin-san quietly closed the door behind him, muscles still trembling with the restraint of not punching the boy he had come to love as a brother.

"Lin-san, I uh," she cleared her throat "come in." her voice broke as she wiped at her face, sitting cross legged on the bed with the picture in hand.

"I'd ask how you're feeling but you'd probably say you're fine." He stated as he sat beside her on the bed. She gave him a sad half-smile before looking back down at the picture. Lin-san vaguely noticed just how beautiful she looked in the fading light, tears and all, before he mentally scolded himself.

"What did I do wrong?" she whimpered almost pathetically, the picture frame being held tight in her grip. Lin-san sighed, placing an arm over her shoulder.

"You did nothing and trust me when I say that. Oliver…he knew what he was doing. All of this, all of this was his fault, not yours" he really wanted Mai to believe this. It had never been her fault. Sure, she may be impulsive and speak out right, she ignored Naru's warnings most of the time and she's not the best cook, but Naru knew what he was getting himself into.

"But—then why? Why did he do that?" it was almost like she was asking herself, not expecting an answer in return.

"Because he's an arrogant asshat who has absolutely no sense of what's good for him." Mai looked up at Lin-san in shock, the answer so abrupt and brash that she found a small, surprised laugh escaping her throat.

"Thanks, Lin-san." Mai whispered and he squeezed her shoulder.

"Mai," she glanced up in shock as he used her first name "I know that this is going to hurt for a long time but I want you to know that this honestly isn't your fault. Oliver has been seeing black and white since his brother died, and while it's no excuse, what I'm trying to say is that you deserve so much better than he could have ever given you." Mai looked into Lin-san's eyes, or eye considering one was covered by his hair. She searched for a while, trying to find any sort of lie but knowing by her 'sixth sense' that there was none.

Ayako had been constantly telling her that she'll be better soon, Bou-san kept threatening to hurt Naru, John was telling her that things happen for a reason and Yasu just made jokes to try and cheer her up. While Mai loved them for it, none of them had been honest with her. None of them believed in what they were saying. Mai was happy to know that Lin-san wasn't lying to her, and she vaguely remembered that he never has. Never outright anyway.

"How do you know that I deserve better, though?" Mai whispered in doubt, tears no longer falling from her eyes. Lin-san gave her that rare smile, the kind that he had once given her on the Urado case. She'd never forgotten that case…it had been the first time she had heard Lin-san laugh.

"Because, Mai, a girl like you deserves the world." Mai felt more tears fall, mostly because she could hear the truth behind his words. She could hear, feel, how much he meant them.

Mai wrapped her arms around Lin-san's waist and smiled, and for the first time since her heart broke it was a true, genuine smile.

Maybe her heart is broken, but maybe that's okay. Maybe…maybe things will be okay after all.


End file.
